“You think you will lead us, a half-breed draken? Your bloodline has chosen its side.”

I felt it happen before it did; Thad had kept Jareth talking while he tunneled deep into his power, reaching and gathering it to him; creating a bomb. My face twisted in agony. I didn’t want to leave him.

“You can’t save everyone!” Thad grunted impatiently, determination and resignation in his eyes. Still, I wavered, not wanting to leave him.

“Watch me,” I snarled, intending to pull him with me. Then he attacked me.

White magick raced at me and I panicked, gathering every thread of each child and witch and every other prisoner deep within the fortress. His magick hit and I screamed in agony, his fire licking at my skin as I wondered if he meant to kill me. I gathered all the prisoners to me and shifted as hard as I could, bleeding the well of power inside of me dry. The last thing I saw was Thad’s eyes roll into the back of his head, and his body hitting the ground. Jareth yelled in triumph, but it was too late for me to help him. I couldn’t stop the shift now.

Unbeknownst to me, at that exact moment every draken on Lyoness dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Chapter Fourteen

Benedict

“The air witches sent over a shipment of livestock, and Hollin is busy overseeing an area to keep them,” Kieran relayed to me.

I flicked through the mound of letters piled on my desk, irritation welling up in me. I needed to delegate more. Ronan needed to take over more. I resolved to ask him.

“And the birds?”

Kieran beamed. “More are returning each day. We might not have to capture any ourselves at all. In fact—”

Kieran went silent, and my eyes flicked up. Alarm shot through my body as Kieran crumpled to the ground, unconscious. My knees buckled as my power was pulled and drained from me, my hands gripping the edge of my desk tightly as I fought it. My mind worked rapidly, fighting the oncoming black that swam against the edges of my vision. I staggered out to the deck and saw drakens laying everywhere, the few witches amongst them yelling in shock and concern. I fell to my knees, clinging desperately to consciousness. There was only one other person who could pull power from the drakens beside me and only under the most dire of circumstances. The wards rang out in alarm, and I quickly activated my blood magicks, throwing my hands out to open the island to whoever was trying to crash in. My body and magick screamed in tandem, pulled between handling the wards and siphoning power to Wren. I needed to be careful or I could die.

A group of women appeared in the middle of our small village, naked. They screamed in terror and viciously lashed out at anyone who approached them. There was another pulse of power, and more drakens fell. It slammed into me, but I fought through it, keeping one hand on the wards, the other pressed to the tattoo on my shoulder. The blood magick activated, flaring out and dispensing the pull evenly amongst everyone. I panted, strained as I felt my power dwindle. Screaming, crying infants appeared, emaciated bodies landing softly on the grass as the witches immediately flocked to them. A third and final pull came, and I knew this was the one that mattered. I closed my eyes and yielded the rest of my power to my queen.